Bengeo Playgroup

Thank You Merry Much!

Karen — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:18:51 +0000

We raised a fantastic and festive £400 at our Christmas Fair in December and thank everyone for their contribution. There was a selection box of things to make, eat and buy and even Santa took some time out of his busy schedule to ride in on his sleigh and meet the children. Ho! Ho! Ho! The funds raised will be used to buy some new tricycles for the children so they can practice their pedaling skills!

Stop Look Listen!

Karen — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:23:47 +0000

Schools across the nation this week have been holding special road safety assemblies and lessons to bring awareness to this year’s Road Safety Week, 21-27 November. The children here at Bengeo Playgroup have had plenty of opportunities to learn important pedestrian skills with our Stop! Look! Listen! song and talk about the importance of keeping safe in the car with the wonderful story ‘Teddy Takes A Tumble’. As well as supporting the children’s imaginative play with our road safety set, parents have joined us to help take the children to our local pedestrian crossing on The Avenue so everyone could practice pressing the button and waiting for the green man. The children have learnt to always hold hands, always buckle up and that traffic is dangerous. Stay safe everyone!

Santa is coming to Bengeo!

Karen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:06:15 +0000

Christmas Fair with Santa
at the Parish Hall - Duncombe Rd

Monday 5th December
12.30-2:30pm

Magic tickets can be purchased (£4 each) on entry to Bengeo Playgroup’s Christmas Fair Present a ticket to Santa’s helper and you will receive a great gift and a photo with Santa!

• Craft activities
• Lucky Dip
• Teddy Tombola,
• Bottle Tombola
• Face Painting
• Cake sale
• Toys
• Jewellery
• Refreshments
• Indulgence Beauty
• Raffle
• Phoenix cards & gifts
• Jamie Oliver kitchen products
• Much, much more!

Come join us for a cuppa!

All funds raised will be used to purchase outdoor trikes and other much needed equipment for the Playgroup (registered charity no.1134075).

Christmas Fair Flyer 2011

Celebrate!

Karen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:35:02 +0000

As part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we must ensure the children are continuously introduced to different communities so that they can begin to know their own and other people’s cultures in order to understand and celebrate the similarities and differences between them. To help support this area of learning (Knowledge & Understanding of the World) we have set up a ‘Celebration’ corner, where artefacts, pictures and books will be displayed of a relevant festival every half term. During the last couple of weeks of this half term, we will be talking to the children about some of the different celebrations that will be going on around the world in December, one of which will be the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which starts on December 20th.

What’s Going On?

Karen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:17:26 +0000

The team were delighted to meet all the new families at the start of the Autumn term and over the course of their first few weeks with us, the children have gradually settled in and become familiar with our daily routine. As well as beginning to say goodbye with confidence, they have been busy getting to know names, checking out our toys and learning important skills such as hand washing and where to go if the fire bell rings.

This half term we will continue to build on the children’s interests and enthusiasms, but also introduce some new songs and activities to extend their learning. We will talk about and re-create firework displays, celebrate Children In Need and raise awareness of Road Safety Week to learn some important pedestrian skills.

Then it’ll be December and time to get ready for Christmas. There’ll be decorations to make, cards to write, gifts to wrap and we’ll even do some baking so the wonderful, festive scents of cinnamon and spice will float through the air! And listen out for a special visitor who will be joining us at our end of term Christmas Party with a special delivery for all the children! Ho Ho Ho!

Links to the EYFS : Creative Development

being creative: responding to experiences, expressing and communicating ideas
exploring media and materials
creating music and dance
developing imagination and imaginative play

Thank You!

Karen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:08:59 +0000

Thank you very much to everyone who was involved in our Spring Fun Day back in May, which raised a truly staggering £1,600. The purpose of the event this year was to raise monies to buy some new equipment to improve the day to day running of the Playgroup and we are delighted to share with you our purchases.

First is the fantastic bespoke canopy in our courtyard – this wonderful construction has been designed with a water tank to collect the rainfall, which the children can recycle in the sandpit or digging area. Very eco-friendly! We also had the children’s pegs recycled and relocated to the entrance area. This has made a huge difference as it means we no longer have lots of outdoor shoes walking through our room every morning (which can be particularly yukky on those grim rainy days) and has also helped speed up things up when the children are being dropped off.

Another purchase was the very smart and very ‘grown up’ noticeboard, which has been installed by our signing in desk and where you’ll find information about forthcoming fundraising events and local activities etc. And finally, with the introduction of packed lunches this term and all day opening next term, a bright red lunchbox trolley and a rainbow of rest mats have been bought for those children who may stay all day and need an afternoon nap. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!

Annual General Meeting 2011

Karen — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:13:07 +0000

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Monday evening for our AGM. It was a great success -not only did we have a fantastic turn out from our new parents joining us in September, but many have decided to join the Committee. This is truly wonderful and we very much look forward to working with you. Here’s to a great 2011/12!

Families

Karen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:10:31 +0000

To end this year we are going to focus the children’s play, activities and experiences around their families to really cement their sense of personal identity ready for the forthcoming transitions. The role play area will be transformed into a home and the courtyard into a back garden, with a washing line, pond and mini allotment! The children will be learning to listen to their friends and help and care for one another too. In addition, we will be singing galore with the focus on number songs to support the children’s knowledge and use of numbers and counting in play.

Main link to the EYFS

Area	Aspect	Learning Intentions
PSE	Self Esteem & self confidence	self-confidence & self-esteeem is about having a sense of their own value and understanding the need for sensitivity to significant events in their own lives and other people’s lives sense of community is about how children understand and respect their own needs, views, cultures and beliefs and those of other people
KUW	Communities	communities is about how children begin to know about their own and other people’s cultures in order to understand and celebrate the similarities and differences between them in a diverse society
PSRN	Numbers as labels and for counting	numbers as labels and for counting is about how children gradually know and use numbers and counting in play, and eventually recognise and use numbers reliably, to develop mathematical ideas and to solve problems

Fun Day

Karen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:07:24 +0000

The Bengeo Playgroup Fun Day on 14th May was a great success. Thankfully the weather was kind to us which helped contribute to it being very well

attended. There was a great variety of stalls, bouncy castle, raffle which resulted in a fantastic total of £1,653.74 being raised. A big thank you to

everyone who made donations, helped on the day and supported the Playgroup by attending.

The Buggy Buddies

Karen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:00:38 +0000

Bengeo Playgroup has joined Hertfordshire’s Buggy Buddies campaign to encourage children to use the outdoors to learn about the world and be happy, healthy and safe. This is a campaign that can be shared between practitioners and fathers/mothers/carers with activities that can be carried out at Playgroup and at home. Its aim is to;

encourage fathers, mothers and carers to walk or cycle and be active on their journeys with children
promote children’s outdoor activity and their understanding of how important it is to keep us healthy and happy
help children to learn about our world and how to look after it and stay safe

Breeze the butterfly, Baxter the Bee, Webster the spider, Poncho the caterpillar, Pipo the ant and Luna the Ladybird have all been introduced to the children and gone down a storm. Following the successful Walk To School Week, we will continue to embed the Buggy Buddies activities into each term. So watch out – there could be a friendly bug coming to you soon! If you have any questions about this compaign, please speak to Mrs Carol Perrett who is co-ordinating the materials and resources. Thank you.